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This content comes from a Full-Text Transcript of the program.

MATT LAUER, co-host:But right now we go to
Washington
and the shake-up within
President Obama
's inner circle. The president will announce this morning that his chief of staff,
Rahm Emanuel
, will step down to run for the mayor's office in
Chicago
.
NBC
's
Savannah Guthrie
is at the
White House
with the details.
Savannah
, good morning to you.

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE reporting:Good morning,
Matt.
Well,
Rahm Emanuel
will be replaced on an interim basis by a
White House
insider,
Pete Rouse
, a senior adviser who's been with the president since his
Senate
days, and for now the
West Wing
is losing its most colorful and controversial character.

Mr. ROBERT GIBBS (White House Press Secretary):I -- we all have deadlines, I understand that.

GUTHRIE:The White House
press secretary tried in vain Thursday to keep a lid on the worst kept secret in
Washington
.

Mr. GIBBS:I'm not going to get into that. Without getting into what the announce will be. I am not going to move a whole lot on what I've already said.

GUTHRIE:As expected,
Rahm Emanuel
will step down as
White House chief of staff
today to satisfy a lifelong professional goal of running for mayor of
Chicago
.

Mr. RAHM EMANUEL:We all know
Chicago
is a city of big shoulders.

GUTHRIE:He'll be replaced by
Pete Rouse
, the president's senior adviser and longtime confidant.
Rouse
ran Mr.
Obama
's
Senate
office and before that was chief of staff to Senator
Tom Daschle
. The consummate
Capitol
insider,
Rouse
is not one to hit the
Washington
party circuit or woo the press.

Ms. ANITA DUNN (Former White House Communications Director):Pete
is a great strategist who doesn't blow his own horn, who doesn't step forward to take credit, but who,
at the end of the day
, I think many people feel outmaneuvered the
Republicans
in the
Senate for
10 years.

GUTHRIE:Rouse
is as low-key and low-profile as his predecessor was loud-mouthed and larger than life...

President BARACK OBAMA:As a young man he had a serious accident. He lost part of his middle finger. As a result of this, this rendered him practically mute.

GUTHRIE:...a reputation parodied on "
Saturday Night Live
."

GUTHRIE:Known by some as "
Rahmbo
" for his take-no-prisoners style,
Emanuel
worked in the
Clinton White House
in the '90s and once famously sent a dead fish to a pollster who delivered bad news. Later elected to multiple terms as a
Chicago
-area congressman, he was hired by
President-elect Obama
after the
2008
campaign for his inside-
Washington
game. He has been key to shepherding through the health care law and financial regulatory reform. But with the president's approval rating now stuck at 46 percent and
Democrats
likely to sustain big losses in the midterms, the
White House
opted not to bring in an outsider with fresh thinking.

Mr. ED GILLESPIE (Republican Strategist):They would benefit probably from some new blood, but I don't think it's the best circumstances under which to bring in, you know, a fresh set of eyes and a new perspective. They're probably right to elevate from within in the current circumstances.

GUTHRIE:Well,
Pete Rouse
is here just temporarily for this chief of staff job. It's not a job he wanted or lobbied for, so in the end,
Matt
, the president still has big shoes to fill.